Ionic Reactions in Two Dimensions with Disorder

Abstract

We analyze the dynamics of the ion-dipole pairing reaction in the two-dimensional Coulomb gas in the presence of disorder. Sufficiently singular disorder forces the critical temperature of the Kosterlitz-Thouless-Berezinskii fixed point to be non-universal. This disorder leads to anomalous ion pairing kinetics with a continuously variable decay exponent. Sufficiently strong disorder eliminates the transition altogether. For ions that are chemically reactive, anomalous kinetics with a continuously variable decay exponent also occurs in the high-temperature regime. The Coulomb interaction inhibits reactant segregation, and so the ionic $A^+ +B^- \to \emptyset$ reaction behaves like the nonionic $A + A \to \emptyset$ reaction.